Posted on 01/15/2009 11:05:27 AM PST by matt1234
MARYSVILLE, Wash. - At least three students were suspended from Marysville-Pilchuck High School after displaying the Confederate flag.
Ray Hauser, spokesperson for the school district, said one incident occurred in October, and another just last week.
The students say the flag is a symbol of culture and heritage, but the school district says it's also a symbol of hatred.
Hauser said the students are aware of school policy, and when the administration learned of the displays, the students were called in for a discussion and suspensions occurred immediately.
Eighteen-year-old Ethian Allen is a senior at the school. Over the past few months, he and his friends have been flying the Confederate flag on their cars. To them it's not a symbol of racism -- but of heritage and the "redneck culture," which they embrace.
"I think as a right of free speech we should have whatever flag we want," he said. "Nobody has come up to us and said it offends them in any way, besides the administration."
After they brought it on school grounds, a few of them got 10-day suspensions.
"There are two different sides to the Confederate flag, one of heritage the other a connection to a symbol of hatred," said Hauser.
The district says its policy on the flag stems from a series of incidents back in 2004. A cross burning at the home of a local African American pastor sparked a series of confrontations at the high school involving the Confederate flag. So the so-called Southern Cross was banned. It's even written in the school handbook.
"While we want to recognize a student's right to free speech, we certainly have the first duty to make sure all our students are safe," Hauser said.
The students say no one has complained to them and they feel the school policy is not enforced fairly.
It may be a right of free speech, but the district cites case law which allows them to ban symbols from school grounds if they interfere with safety and the learning process. They say the Confederate flag is a prime example.
The students say the flag is a symbol of culture and heritage
yeh, Southern culture and heritage, not Northwestern. I can’t stand pretenders. And unfortunately during “massive resistance” racists bastardized the symbol of the Confederate flag to promote hate. So some see it as a symbol of hate. I can work with a person that is flying the flag because they are proud of their Confederate heritage and history, but not if they are trying to raise it to symbolize hate.
I can understand how people view the confederate flag as offensive...and I’d never fly one, even if I were from the south. But equally I view the peace symbol as a symbol of hate for the exact same reasons you cited regarding the confederate flag. Clearly, not everyone who wears a peace symbol spit on returning veterans, but some did hijack the symbol to make it a symbol of hatred.
A heritage and culture that I doubt these products of suburban Seattle know anything about.
It wasn’t much of a party!I often look back and wonder if the poor dears are actively involved in politics! I wonder which party they are affiliated with?
I’ve never thought of the peace symbol that way because the Vietnam war was really before my generation, but I could see how that would change your view about the symbol.
>>It may fly again!<<
Au contraire, it WILL fly again. Mine goes up January 20. Might as well, nobody (including America’s Dope) has any respect for the American flag, except us veterans.
I was not aware that Ethian was a Redneck name.
What about FUBU gear? Any problem with that? Or big X logos on hats & t-shirts? Or Apple Bottom” jeans? One mans culture is another man’s symbol of hatred.
Malcolm X did hate “whitey” and wrote and spoke on it. Any commemoration of him is far more offensive to me than the Rebel flag.
FUBU stands for: For Us By Us, it is a racially exclusive clothing brand that is also an offenseive acronym. Are the black kids allowed to wear FUBU?
‘Apple Bottom’ is a brand that celebrates the large booties that many black woman sport. In doing so it denegrates the smaller, flatter backsides of white girls. Does the school administration allow Apple Bottom branded clothes.
Where have you been?
The politically correct groups, that’s who!
If you are trying to make rational sense of this, you are wasting your time.
I have never seen this flag before. Can you explain how it came about and what it means? Thanks!
US flag upside down until I know the one is legit, and my confederate battle flag on the same pole for all to see!
Semper Fi
Georgia State Flag {2001 - 2003} 
Georgia State Flag {1956 - 2001}
This is the one some Liberal saw in Clarence Thomas' office and pronounced that he was a Racist.
How many injuries are caused by flag displays every year?
So how are they going to know that your CBF isn't flying upside down, too?
ROFLMAO! Good one!
Google the Bonnie Blue Flag.
Washington territory comprised Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana.
A map of territories of 1820 shows Washington territory (parts of which went into Canada >see 54/40 or Fight war or The Pig War<) and was not listed as a slave territory. The British and Americans administered this area at the time. The state of Washington was not a slave state or territory. Washington became a state Monday, November 11, 1889. Therefore Washington, the state, could not have been a slave state since it didn't exist as a state during the Civil War.
Therefor I am confused as to where you may have gotten the information regarding Washington as a slave state.
The 15 slave states at the time of the Civil War were Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia (including West Virginia which hadn't separated from Virginia at that time). (The District of Columbia also had slavery prior to the Civil War.)
Though not states, slavery was practiced in the Nebraska Territory and in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) as early as the 1850s. Washington Territory was not mentioned.
The last northern state to abolish slavery was New Jersey in 1804, although the laws of that state retained slaves over a certain age as "apprentices for life" until the 13th Amendment, in 1865. Eleven of these states declared their secession in 1860 and 1861 to form the Confederate States of America; Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri did not leave the Union. West Virginia joined the Union as a free state in 1863 after seceding from Virginia.
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